


On the Other Side of the Wardrobe

by nothingeverlost



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-26
Updated: 2014-06-27
Packaged: 2018-01-13 20:13:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1239340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if it had been a young Graham, not August, going through the wardrobe with Emma?</p><p>A collection of drabbles</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Saving

Ten feet wasn’t far, in the scheme of things, but the wound in his side was burning and he couldn’t get up. It had been all he could do to cradle Emma and protect her as he fell. he’d taken down Regina’s soldier, but more would be coming. He needed to get his daughter to the wardrobe.

“Help.” Snow still sobbed in her bed, and everyone else was fighting. There was no one to help him.

From the corner of his eye he saw something move. “Graham?”

“I’m sorry, highness.” He hid behind a curtain, the small orphan lad that helped down in the stables. David never remembered even seeing him inside the castle. Snow had offered him a bed, but he’d claimed to prefer hay and the sounds of animals.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. Everyone. She’s coming.” He had thought they’d be able to stop the curse. He’d wanted to save his family. “I need your help.”

“I’m not afraid.” He was small, abandoned so young that he didn’t even know his own age. He’d appeared three years ago, wrapped in furs and speaking very little.

“We need to get to the cabinet, will you help me?” Graham nodded and pulled with all his might, but David couldn’t help him. They gained only a few inches and there was a sound outside the door. More soldiers.

“You have to take the baby. Her name is Emma, and she is the princess. Keep her safe, Graham, and tell her stories of our land. It will be a strange place, where you’re going, but…” he gasped, the pain in his side fighting to overwhelm everything. “Twenty-eight years and she’ll find us again.”

“I’ll keep her safe.” David’s last look before he blacked out was of the small boy entering the wardrobe, Emma in his arms.


	2. Eighteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On Graham's eighteenth birthday he has to leave foster care.

“Please, Graham, you have to stay.” In eleven years they’d only been separated twice, the first time when she was young enough to only vaguely remember, the second time lasting only a week because she wasn’t going to stay in any home that didn’t accept him too.

“Ems, I can’t. I’m eighteen now. They won’t let me stay anymore.” His bag was open on his bed, half packed. The closet door was open, his half almost empty.

“I can come with you. I don’t take up much room, and I can make scrambled eggs and use the microwave for almost anything.” It had always been her and Graham, wherever they were. Her first memories were of him telling her stories about a magic land where birds talked and a Prince and Princess had a baby girl they loved very much.

“I wish I could, but I don’t have a place to stay yet, or a job. They wouldn’t let me take you.”

“We don’t have to tell them. We can just go.” People ran all the time. She and Graham took care of each other, they didn’t need anybody else.

“I’m going to come back, Ems. I promise. Here.” He shrugged off his leather jacket, his most prized possession, and draped it over her shoulders. “You keep this for me, alright? I’ll come back for it, but more importantly you, as soon as I can.”

“Graham.” She clung to him, not caring about her rule about never letting anyone see her cry. Graham was her family.

“You’ll be alright, princess. I promise you’ll be alright and we’ll be together again. And one day we’re going to go on a quest to find our kingdom. Remember, they need us to save them.”

“I remember.” She didn’t believe in magic anymore, or kingdoms where good parents loved their children. But she believed in Graham.


	3. Lonely

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was one of the better ones

[ ](http://tinypic.com?ref=2uzbhox)

It was one of the better foster homes he’d seen. The place was posh, and Emma had her own room. She was even going to one of those schools where everyone wore jackets with crests on them. it made it harder, though, to visit her.

Graham managed to find out that the Smythes were having a party, and got hired by the catering company. There’d been phone calls but it was the closest he’d gotten to seeing her in over a month.

She looked lonely, sad, and out of place. He had to find a way to get more money so they could be together. She needed him.

"Hey kid." He wasn’t supposed to leave the kitchen where it was his job to watch dishes and refill trays, but he didn’t care. Some things were more important.

"Graham." For the first time since he’d arrived at the house he saw Emma’s face light up.


	4. Santa's Helper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

[ ](http://tinypic.com?ref=ncjerb)

"So there’s this car I’ve had my eye on. Think you could put in a good word with Santa for me?" It hadn’t been easy, but he’d managed to get to the mall just before Emma was supposed to take her break, and only had to wait out of sight ten minutes before she rounded the corner, striped hat in one hand.

"Graham!" It had only been a week and a half since Thanksgiving. She’d eaten with her foster family but they’d allowed Graham to come visit for dessert. But they’d also been there the whole time, watching.

"Going for the Shirley Temple look, are we? Nice bows." he tugged on one of her curls.

Emma jabbed him in the arm. ”I know I look stupid, okay? There’s not exactly a lot of jobs for a fourteen year old. I had to look the part.”

"The Smythes are taking care of you, aren’t they? Food and clothes and all that?" Graham frowned.

"Sure, but it’s not like they’re going to pay for our apartment. I’m saving up. Sooner we have money the sooner you can get me out of here, right?"

"The minute we can make it work. It helps that I turned twenty-one. There’s more opportunities." he didn’t tell her that some of those opportunities were out of town. Out of the country, some of them. There was money to be made if you were willing to work in the middle of nowhere.

"I can help too. I miss you." She hadn’t stopped touching him, even if it was a hand on his arm.

"I miss you too, Ems. It’s not home if you’re not there." Three years now, since they’d lived together, but he was going to find a way to fix that. She was his family and he needed to be there for her. "Maybe i should move to the North Pole with you and Mr. Claus over there."

"Dork. Santa’s real name is Bert and he has a boyfriend." Emma jerked her head towards the food court. "I can buy dinner for us both. I get a mall discount."

"You know I might manage to be at the mall quite a bit this holiday season. Like close to your break time? Dinner together like we use to?" There’s been homes they’d lived in where ‘family’ meals had been the two of them in a dingy kitchen with heated up soup. The food court was five star dining.

"Seriously? I could give you my schedule." Emma grinned. 

"I’m on nights right now so it’s actually breakfast for me, but yeah, I’m serious. Dinner three or four times a week; you might even get tired of me."

"Never." Emma hugged him hard, ignoring the annoyed server letting them know they were next.


	5. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It had taken a year, but he’d found her.

It took Graham six years to keep his promise. It wasn’t easy for an eighteen year old kid with a high school degree and no home to get a job, let alone one that would allow him to support another person. He’d talked to a lawyer, and the chances of him being allowed custody of anyone was almost impossible. But he was from another world, raised by wolves and had the keeping of a princess. Impossible things happened more often than this world knew.

For the first three years there’d been visits, but then he’s gotten an opportunity up in Canada. Twenty-one months, but at the end he’d have enough saved for him and Emma to live on.

By the time he’d gotten back Emma had run. Graham had never felt so frantic as he did those next months, tearing up the streets trying to find her, every day a new nightmare about what had made her run from a roof over her head and three squares. She knew he would be back for her. He’d promised.

It had taken a year, but he’d found her. It was bad, but in his head he’d seen her dead, or on a street corner. She was alive and healthy. That mattered.

She was also pregnant.

“His name was Neal. He’s long gone.” A layer of plexiglass separated them, denying even the briefest of touches.

“I’m so sorry, Ems. I shouldn’t have left you.” If he had been smarter or stronger he could have found a way. He’d promised her father, but more importantly he’d promised her.

“Hey, don’t you dare blame this on yourself. I made choices. I knew you were gonna come for me, it was never about that. I couldn’t stay there anymore, but I would have found you. Graham,” she snapped his name, knuckles rapping against the glass. “Stop. This isn’t your fault.”

“I never wanted anything to happen to you.” She knew him. No one else in this world or any other could say that, except Emma. His head was already full of a spiral of blame.

“Well duh.” For just a moment he saw the eleven year old girl in her. But despite the fact that she was seventeen and a child in the eyes of the law, Emma was a woman. “I’m okay. This place isn’t so bad, and it’s only ten months. Four months gone already; I’ll be out by the end of summer.”

“And the kid?” He hands were rested on her belly, but the moment he asked the question they feel to her sides.

“I don’t know. They brought be information on adoption.” She didn’t look at him, or at her belly, staring at the counter instead.

Graham frowned. “I don’t care what they think. What do you want?”

“It’s not fair to the kid to keep it. I can’t be a mom.”

“You can be anything you want, Emma Swan. And if you want is to be a mom, then I’ll be right there helping to change diapers and hold bottles or whatever you need. If adoption is right for you then I’ll be there for that too. You won’t be alone again. I swear.” Graham held his hand up to the plexiglass, fingers splayed. On the other side Emma mated her fingers up with his.


End file.
